what should i do? advice needed!!!

[starlover]

I have a self-harm support website which i have run for several years now. the message board is quite quiet these days but it is still kind of ticking along.

anyway, yesterday I got an e0-mail from a young girl in America who wanted to talk about self harm. She sounds like she is having a tough time, and said she had told her mum who didn't believe her.

I said that she was more than welcome to keep e-mailing me, but that i would really advise that she spoke to someone in a professional capacity, ie a counsellor at school, or her doctor.

she mailed me abck today asking if she can use me as her counsellor as her school one is an older man and she doesn't really feel happy talking to him!

soooo, i mailed her back and pointed out that i am not a counsellor, although i am happy to keep e-mailing her. i urged her again to think of someone she could talk to in real life (a teacher or someone)...

have i done the right thing? i don;t want to be a "counsellor" to her, i am not trained as one and have never professed to being one... at the same time i don't want her to feel like no-one cares about her and i am happy to keep e-mailing her. I also know that without help this isn't going to go away... she isn't going to get better without any outside help...

what do i do? i can't just keep e-mailing her forever... can i?

bump

Perhaps in time, with a little support from you via e-mail, she will feel confident enough to approach an alternative counsellor if she's not happy with the school one.

I agree with your point about not wanting to make her feel that no-one cares. She's obviously feeling very vunerable. It's great that she's starting to seek help. Perhaps you could see yourself as just the first step.

What a difficult situation.

I think what you have done was the best course of action. Keep on encouraging her to confide in someone closer to home and keep the lines of communication open and explain to her again why you can't be her councellor. She is lucky to have contacted someone so considerate

agree with littlefish, as long as you keep encouragign her to contact soemone else, and reminding her that you can only caht as a friendly ear, nothign more, that is really the best you can do in a difficult situation.

thanks all.
i was a bit worried i guess because i rememberr a situation a while ago on a depression site where someone was offering their services as a counsellor when in fact they weren't
i would hate people to think that i was leading this girl on and pretending to help her when i wasn't actually professionally able to.